A Few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of flying to Berlin, Germany. Unfortunately, the trip started out on a rough patch since my travels the first day consisted of multiple connecting flights due to the cancelation of my original flight. First, I flew from Barcelona to Brussels, and then from there to Munich, and then finally Berlin.
During the course of my connections, I realized major differences between the travel wear of people flying in those regions versus those of Barcelona or the United States. Typically, in the U.S., people tend to dress comfortably and relaxed when traveling. This is the norm because depending on where you are flying, the flight could be very long. With this, passengers will mainly be sitting for the whole duration of a flight and you don’t want to feel uncomfortable if that is the case.
When it came to all the passengers on those three flights, everyone was wearing mainly business professional or casual. The men were mainly all wearing suits, as if they had to rush off to a business meeting as soon as they got off the plane. Very few were dressed casually and if they were it was a very nice sweater or with a vest. The women were almost the same wearing basically all business casual. They dressed a little more down then the men but still were looking their best.
These differences made me really question the European style for traveling. I started thinking, is the European style always more professional or are people just going to work right after the flight? Could it be because it’s a Thursday during the non-holiday season and every passenger is on a business trip? And why do people always look their best? Who are they trying to impress? Additionally, I was also thinking about the fact that this was on Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa flights. All my past flights since then have been on Easy jet or other low-cost carriers. Does the fact that the flights clientele makes a difference on the fashion?
These questions weren’t completely answered when I arrived in Berlin. Yes, for the most part people tended to dress up and look their bests but this still didn’t explain the flight attire. I decided to look into the matter and found that after WWII and everything happening in the country from communism and Nazism, the German people continued to dress in a more traditional and classic style which stopped them from following the changing fashion trends from western influences. This carried on to the next generation of people after the war since their parents had to deal with it.
With all of this in mind, the fact of the matter is that the majority of the passengers on my flights were over the age of 30 and most were most likely in their 50s. This is why I believe that everyone on those flights in that region were dressed in that manner.
One Stylish Foreigner 